Tag: Iraq

Simon Bristow, The Yorkshire Post, November 6, 2006 THERE was joy from his victims, a sense of justice from relatives of those he killed, and a studied satisfaction from foreign ministers when it was announced Saddam Hussein would hang for committing crimes against humanity. But there were almost universal fears the ruling by an Iraqi…

David Swanson, OpEd News, October 24, 2006 Rumsfeld and his ally Saddam The White House has arranged to announce two days before the November 7, 2006, elections a guilty verdict for Saddam Hussein and, no doubt, plans to finally murder him. Meanwhile an appeals process is delaying until at least five days after the elections…

Santa Barbara Independent, September 28, 2006 By Kevin McKiernan, maker of the documentary Good Kurds, Bad Kurds and author of the new book The Kurds: A People in Search of Their Homeland. He has covered the war in Iraq in both Kurdish and Arab areas for ABC News. “Saddam Hussein deserves the ultimate punishment.” Is…

Steven Russell, Suffolk & Essex Online, September 26, 2006 CHOMAN Hardi is no stranger to hardship. She was born in Iraqi-controlled Kurdistan in 1974 – the year negotiations broke down with the Baath government. The Kurds had long been fighting for autonomy, but when the revolution was crushed many people fled to neighbouring Iran. Among…

ERIC BLACK, STAR TRIBUNE, MINNEAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 10, 2006 As his trial resumes today, Saddam Hussein stands charged with massacring tens of thousands or more Kurds, including thousands who were killed by chemical weapons dropped from aircraft. President Bush has often cited this atrocity as part of the justification for removing from power “a man who…

LIBCOM.ORG, SEPTEMBER 9, 2006 Massacred civilians and deserting Iraqi troops on the Basra road There has been a long tradition of class struggle in Iraq, particularly since the revolution in 1958. With Saddam’s strategy of a permanent war drive to maintain social peace this struggle has often taken the form of mass desertion from the…

CLAUDE SALHANI, UPI, SEPTEMBER 5, 2006 WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) — Verbal sparring between those who believe Iraq is in a state of civil war and the Bush administration, who insists it is not, may find the argument increasingly in favor of those who believe the country is affected by civil divisions, and may…

IBON VILLELABEITIA, KURDISH MEDIA, UK, SEPTEMBER 4, 2006 HALABJA, Iraq – Broken glass crunched under Adnan’s feet as he walked through Halabja’s vandalised memorial. He stopped and pointed to an inscription on the wall. “There is my father’s name. I remember the day they gassed us as if it were yesterday. We ran but my…

GEORGE MONBIOT, AUGUST 27, 2006 When Saddam Hussein so pig-headedly failed to shower US troops with chemical weapons as they entered Iraq, thus depriving them of a retrospective justification for this war, the American generals explained that he would do so as soon as they crossed the “red line” around Baghdad. Beyond that point, the…

MARIE COLVIN & HAMOUD SAFFAR, HALABJA, THE TIMES, AUGUST 21, 2005 WHEN Saddam Hussein arrives in a Baghdad courtroom tomorrow to face genocide charges over a murderous campaign conducted against Kurds in northern Iraq, the witnesses will be hoping for a fairer hearing than those in his first trial. Attempts to prove Saddam’s guilt over…

OFFICE OF KRG SPOKESMAN KHALED SALIH The Kurdistan Regional Government issues the following statement concerning the crimes that were committed against the people of Kurdistan by the Iraqi government. 17 August 2006, Erbil, Kurdistan – Iraq (KRG) – The people of Kurdistan have been victims of internationally recognised crimes against humanity committed by Iraqi governments,…

KHALED SALIH, GVTEBORGS UNIVERSITET Iraq and the Kurds: a bibliographic essay (1) In October 1988, while the destruction of Kurdistan and the mass killing of the Kurds by the Iraqi regime was a well-known fact, though understandably not documented, at least in the West, Milton Viorst published a peculiar article in the International Hearald Tribune…

JOHN KAMPFNER, NEW STATESMAN, AUGUST 7, 2006 Blair knew the attack on Lebanon was coming but he didn’t try to stop it, because he didn’t want to. He has made this country an accomplice, destroying what remained of our influence abroad while putting us all at greater risk of attack. By John Kampfner At a…

THE GLOBE, JULY 25, 2006 Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan-Iraq, –The President of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, Massoud Barzani, said on last Saturday that Kurdish government will pursue the foreign companies who sold chemical materials to the former Iraqi government of President Saddam Hussein. Addressing a mass gathering of people from Halabja, President Barzani added “we will legally go…

MARGARET BESHEER, VOICE OF AMERICA Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is facing several trials on separate charges of crimes against humanity. One of those trials will focus on the 1988 gassing deaths of some 5,000 Kurds in the northern Iraqi city of Halabja. Halabja’s streets are very quiet on a hot afternoon, lending an eerie…